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Vampire Coast Expansion: Pirate Life

pirate ♥♥♥♥ is very specific and theres not much to steal from other races so..

1. "Ship X Sail Opaque" (skfb.ly/pvpXZ) by gogiart is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Not yet used.
2. "Ribauldequin (Da Vinci)" (https://skfb.ly/M9ET) by Taylor is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
3. "Pirate Ship phase-2 Free 3D model" (www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/vehicle/other/pir-c881e7eb-29f1-41e6-8ac8-58afadb55e96) by arvistnt is licensed under Royalty Free No Ai License - Used! the unit called "Lake of fire"
4. "15th-16th century mortar (rusty version)" (https://skfb.ly/osCoI) by Nortenko Dmytro is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
5."The Sword of Blackbeard (Free model)" (https://skfb.ly/oYn66) by WixZ is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
6."Pirate hat" (https://skfb.ly/oDoDr) by ReversedG is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). - modified

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An overhaul and an expansion for the Vampire Coast, 2 years of work (mostly adding stuff and removing it because i change my mind a lot), description is new, playable status: luthor>aranessa>noctilus (dont play cylostra for now), more stuff will be added over time, you can consider that wip
changes and additions are wide and deep, vary from each projectile visuals to completely replacing all buildings and adding new mechanics
NOT MADE FOR MP
dont ask me a question that is answered in the text below and in the links
custom game roster has many units that are wip and are not pushed into the campaign, dont worry about them

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the large portions of text were written by grok, thanks elon musk, very cool!

Introduction - Vampire Coast: Pirates Without a Port

Undead pirates are simple: plunder, gunpowder, and the open sea. No land grabs, no factories, no gods and no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ archers—just raw, chaotic piracy. That’s their charm. But translating that into Total War? That’s where the trouble starts.

The Problem

Vanilla Total War doesn’t get it. Other factions conquer regions, scale up, and chase victory. The Coast? They’re stuck. No growth mechanic keeps pace with map-painting empires. More regions don’t make their units stronger—by turn 250, you’re no better off than at turn 50. There’s no endgame either; just endless raiding without a finish line. And enemies? They respawn like weeds while your rivals snowball into juggernauts. Good luck facing a faction that owns the world when you’re still afloat on the same leaky ship.

Vanilla Status

Creative Assembly dodged this mess by making the Coast a generic land-hoarding faction—pirates in name only. Thematic? Hardly. But I get it: a true pirate campaign is a design nightmare.
The irony is that the scaling problem mentioned above applies to vanilla.. land buildings give absolutely nothing!

My Take

I wrestled with this for two years, trying to crack it. Spoiler: no magic fix emerged. But I didn’t walk away empty-handed. I set one rule: features stay or get added—vanilla or custom—only if they vibe with the faction leader, faction, or race. If it’s not pirate to the core, it’s cut. Bloat’s welcome; irrelevance isn’t.

That said, I tackled the mess above—especially the regionless scaling—with some tricks of my own. They’re not perfect, but they keep the Coast afloat. So, the Vampire Coast sails on, gloriously aimless: plundering, killing, surviving. No grand answers—just the sea and a bit of grit.

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Shipping

This mod adds ships using vanilla models and custom animations converted from campaign skeletons. They’re lore-friendly, not tweaked for looks. Ships rely on autonomous riders—separate from the main unit—each with unique range, projectile, animation, model, and firing arc. Firing arcs are narrow and realistic: vanilla Cannonade at ~60°, ship cannons at ~30°. Most ships carry multiple riders with varied projectiles and damage, though only cannon stats show (game limitation). These tight arcs demand direct enemy facing, unlike forgiving vanilla units—a perfect showcase for rider mechanics.
I try to make each side of the ship deal damage that would amount to 75% of the unit's value, so.. its not for everyone

Heavy Scripting

Anything that I couldve done with scripts, I did with scripts
including UI ♥♥♥♥
The downside is that scripts can break, especially when a whack job like me created them. I’ve tested where I can, but feedback is still needed. If one script breaks, all scripts break. Even CA’s own scripts break more often than you know, though you might not notice.
To check if a script is broken, enable the context viewer under Menu > Options > Modding. If there’s a red cross next to the campaign, a script has failed. This can happen with vanilla as well. Run the "Script Debug Activator" (available HERE), it wont slow your game, all it does is prints the log of the scripts. If you see the red cross, it means a script broke and you can give me the log so i can find out what function broke and how can i fix it.